Customer Reviews

The Accidental Taxonomist (The Accidental Library Series)

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This "accidental taxonomist" fell into this work via SharePoint design projects. I've often found that the best designed SharePoint architecture and user interface nonetheless fails due to a poorly-planned taxonomy. Heather Hedden's book is an ideal handbook on taxonomy for those coming into it, as I did, as an "add-on" to SharePoint projects. Ms. Hedden's book starts with the basics, and drills into the finer points, while maintaining a pragmatic approach that doesn't get bogged down in academic disputes. The result is an indispensible handbook for someone who needs to put taxonomy knowledge to use immediately and effectively.

This book is a great reference for anyone who is starting a taxonomy, modifying one, or maintaining one.

The history portion can be skimmed through if you're just looking for practical how-tos and best practices...but really, even the history portion will help you out in the long run.

I'm an information architect, and keep this by my computer constantly.

The Accidental Taxonomist provides a highly practical description of taxonomy jobs, the skills required, and the opportunities out there for employment and freelancing. For anyone considering entering the field, this book is an excellent place to start. It introduces the basic concepts and techniques as well as resources for further learning. It also does a great job of summarizing the different types of work that fall under the taxonomy umbrella. For those who currently do some form of taxonomy work, this "big picture" is especially helpful in communicating to prospects and clients what taxonomists do and the benefits they can deliver.

As a small-business owner, I always look for professional development resources that will pay for themselves in one way or another. I consider this book an excellent value and recommend it without hesitation.

As a student transitioning from a Library & Information Science graduate program to the real world, this book was amazingly helpful, both in its breadth of information and the way in which it is delivered. Taxonomy is complicated! Many people think they know what it means, and most are wrong. Beyond the navigational application of a taxonomy is its conceptual implications, which, when applied correctly, provides a structure and organizational framework that empowers the entity for which it was built. The approach, organization,and delivery of information that this book reflects, is a perfect example of the content it aims to communicate. What better way to illustrate this complex practice of creating a visual system of classification and order? Ms. Hedden is known as an expert in the field of taxonomy and classification, and this comes through in what I, a now employed taxonomist, refer to as my "bible".

"The Accidental Taxonomist" by Heather Hedden succinctly and comprehensively addresses the needs of the many knowledge-resource professionals who are either thrust into, or who voluntarily choose to enter, the world of knowledge organization. This is an emerging field for which there are relatively few routes of academic preparation. Nevertheless, knowledge organization is essential in many areas.

While Ms. Hedden addresses primarily the needs of those working in large-scale enterprises, a surprising number of smaller-scaled enterprises need to take knowledge organization seriously as well. Further, taxonomy creation principles encompass design of structured knowledge bases as well as unstructured content. This means that such focused tasks as taxonomy design of customer management databases, even for very small companies, can benefit from this kind of structured approach. At the same time, with the proliferation of image and video-based knowledge resources, a structured means for taxonomizing these kinds of data, together with existing text-based data, is vital. In short, the need for a "handbook on how to develop taxonomies" is great, and there are very few resources that meet this need.

As Ms. Hedden discovered during the course of an (admittedly informal) survey, the majority of those now working as "professional taxonomists" have come into the area from other disciplines (many having a background in library science, but this does not even come close to being a majority). Further, the overwhelming majority of respondents identify "informal learning and experience" on the job, and "self-taught through reading" as their primary taxonomy education methods. In this light, Ms. Hedden's book becomes even more valuable. Having taught both knowledge discovery and information technology classes at the university level, I can confidently suggest Ms. Hedden's book as a useful textbook for a one-semester course that would capably prepare a student to perform professional taxonomy work.

One of the most cogent arguments that Ms. Hedden makes is that "The purpose [of creating taxonomy] is not merely to retrieve documents but also to help users better understand the organization of the enterprise ... " (p. 23). This is a valuable insight about the role of taxonomies in a large enterprise; they reflect the view that the enterprise has about itself and its operation in the world. Taxonomies, then, help define the universe in which an enterprise lives.

"The Accidental Taxonomist" covers a wide range of useful topics, ranging from controlled vocabularies through taxonomies up to ontologies; from software for taxonomy creation to those delicate decisions (e.g., creating precoordinated terms) that only humans can make. Discussions of existing software resources, and blogs, conferences, and other tools and resources for taxonomists will date the material in this book, but are exceptionally useful for new taxonomists. That justifies the inclusion of material that can become dated over time.

In sum, this is a valuable reference. It can be useful not only for the taxonomists themselvs, but also for members of organizations who will work with a taxonomist or taxonomy team. It becomes useful for "content managers" who will help implement taxonomy-based practices. It is even useful for persons at the CXO level who will need to gain a solid understanding of the enterprise's structure, worldview, and knowledge content as it will be expressed via taxonomy.

This is an important and timely book.

I like the book for the following reasons:

Captures industry standards and best practices in comprehensive and understandable manner

Suitable for all(students, taxonomists, those who support taxonomists, managers of all levels, etc.)

Table of contents that does great job of capturing essence of book

Appendix that includes glossary, recommended reading and websites

From an organizational perspective, I recommend comparing existing practices with the industry

standards and best practices captured in the book.

I currently teach an online version of an information organization and representation course (knowledge and information management) for Indiana University's School of Library and Information Science and am using this book as an assigned text this semester (Summer 2011). This is an excellent resource for library science students and really helps provide a practical example in the classroom of how Librarians' skills can be used beyond the classroom. However, as a practicing information architect, I also keep a copy close at hand for professional use as well. There is not a plethora of resources such as this in the field and this text helps provide both a good overview as well as offering additional resources for practitioners and students alike. In a field where corporations are still struggling to manage both their information and knowledge, this book is not only a wonderful addition, but a necessity for IA's in the field.